DOUBLES TRAP featuring BENT AERIAL and LEGS MONTANA!

It's the middle of week 5, my body is getting more used to the constant abuse it's receiving :)
My back got hurt at the very end of last week (weird nerve muscle thing), and I discovered on Monday that Jamie asking me to do some forward rolls was the solution to my back problem. It instantly cleared up.

On Monday night, we had Deena for lyra and sling class. Now, let me say it here, before you hear it anywhere else.
I FREAKIN' LOVE DEENA! She is really one of my most inspirational teachers here. She doesn't just look at circus as a sport/technique based performance. She uses it as a tool as well as dance and some theater to create really beautiful stage pictures, emotional connections. This is WHILE doing really beautiful skillful tricks.
So class was nice, she actually spent about 20 minutes having us just put together and sequence tricks that we've learned in little groups. I thrive on that kind of creation, and not just learning tricks. I love sequences, and finding new ways to combine tricks. Oh btw, she's also a really cute mom.

Tuesday was a little bit of member's only working on trapeze stuff. Then, Christi and I went to the gym to run for 45 minutes. About 40 minutes later (yikes), I returned to take fabric class. Caroline (my original fabric teacher for this class) returned, which means, the special brand of ASSKICKING that Caroline serves up has returned as well. It was a very challenging class but I feel like my endurance is getting back, and I can actually work on her "I'm the only one who can do this, but how bout you guys try this" tricks.

This morning was spent as a joint workshop between Protrack and Intensive, where we spent the first hour learning the essentials of rigging knowledge (most of which was covered previously, so I wasn't that interested, but I obviously paid attention to make sure I picked up anything new, and remembered older things). Then the next 2 hours were spent with a nutritionist who basically just spent 2 hours telling us to NEVER EAT ANY FORM OF SUGAR, and make sure you eat veggies. I was a little uncomfortable about it, because I feel like many times experts are brought in to speak to a group of people, they take an EXTREME stance on something (i.e. Don't eat any form of sugars, no matter what. You might as well kill yourself). I would much rather "i understand you will probably eat sugar, here is the best way to MODERATE what kind of sugars you are eating".

Then.... I had my private lesson for the week.
An hour long private lesson with Eileen to learn

The Art of Doubles Trapeze from Jamie.

Now, just to fill you in, at a huge dinner party a few weeks ago, we came to the conclusion that my circus/porn name is Bent Ariel, and Eileen's is Legs Montana.
So, to start, Jamie just had us get used to me taking Eileen's weight from catcher's lock on the trapeze. (Catcher's lock is a staple of doubles trapeze when one is basing the other under the bar. The catcher starts from balancing on their front hips on the bar, then as they tip forward, their legs seperate and straddle to hook around the ropes to create a nice grippy position to pick the flyer up in.)
We started learning some of the basic moves between a base and a flyer on doubles trapeze (cause once you know the main techniques, a lot of it, is just playing around and creating interesting transitions and pictures).
I learned that being a base is a lot of deceptive performance. One might think that the base has to basically just hang their and be strong. Well...let me tell you. Being a base takes a sh*t ton of strength and pain tolerance. After just an hour of class, I have bright red marks where the bar dug into my upper thighs in catchers lock, and my butt has a dent in it from the bar. I LOVE it though, I am really excited by doubles trapeze when it's done well. Eileen is a great partner, and I love that when we starting hashing out our notes from the private, she mentioned her "downstage" leg (a theater term) and I completely didn't realize that we were talking theater and not circus.
To end this post before I have to go to inversions class tonight, I wanted to post a link to Tempo Trapeze, the duo trapeze couple I saw perform at the big E the weekend before last. They are really great performers, and I love their techniques, and style of doubles trap.